Traditional Custodians of the Pilbara, Western Australia. Majority owners of Jina Rent a Car. A Nation whose connection to country stretches back more than 50,000 years — and whose economic future this business is part of building.
Acknowledgement of Country. Jina Rent a Car acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of all the countries on which we operate — including the Yindjibarndi Nation, the Far West Coast peoples, and all First Nations groups whose country our locations, routes and operations pass through. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
The Yindjibarndi Nation are the Traditional Custodians of a vast and ancient landscape in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Their country centres on the Fortescue River and its tributaries, spanning from the rugged gorges and ranges of Karijini National Park and the Hamersley Range in the south — one of the oldest landscapes on earth — northward through the spinifex plains to the coast around Roebourne, Wickham and Karratha.
This is country of extraordinary scale and diversity. The Hamersley Range rises from the flat iron-red plains in formations that are over two and a half billion years old. The Fortescue River and its tributaries cut through the range, creating the deep gorges and waterholes that have sustained life — human and otherwise — for millennia. The coastal country around the Pilbara's northern edge opens onto the Indian Ocean, with its own distinct ecology and seasonal rhythms.
The Yindjibarndi have not simply lived on this country — they have known it, named it, mapped it in song and story, and held responsibility for its care for more than 50,000 years. Every feature of the landscape carries meaning: waterholes, ranges, river bends, rock formations — all of it is part of a living geography that belongs to the Yindjibarndi people as much as it belongs to the earth itself.
"Country is not something you own. It is something you belong to."
Today, Yindjibarndi country is also the site of some of Australia's most significant iron ore operations — the mines of the Pilbara that underpin much of Australia's national export revenue. The Yindjibarndi Nation navigates that reality with clear eyes: asserting their rights, negotiating their interests, and building economic structures — like Jina — that ensure the wealth of the Pilbara generates genuine returns for its Traditional Custodians.
The Yindjibarndi language is a Ngayarta language of the Pama-Nyungan family — one of the great language families of Aboriginal Australia, stretching across much of the continent. Within the Pilbara, Yindjibarndi is closely related to Banyjima, Kurrama and Martuthunira, sharing grammatical structures and vocabulary while maintaining its own distinct form.
Yindjibarndi is a living language. It is spoken in communities, taught to children, used in ceremony, and actively maintained by the Yindjibarndi Nation and Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation. This is not a language being preserved in archives — it is a language in active daily use, carrying the accumulated knowledge of the Yindjibarndi people across generations.
The language encodes a detailed understanding of the Pilbara environment: its plants, animals, weather patterns, watercourses and seasonal cycles. To speak Yindjibarndi is to carry a map of country inside the language itself. Words that seem simple — like jina, meaning foot — carry layers of meaning that connect speaker to place, to movement, to the marks people leave as they walk across the country they belong to.
The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation has invested significantly in language documentation and revitalisation, including the development of a Yindjibarndi dictionary and language learning resources. This work ensures that the language — and the knowledge it holds — continues to grow alongside the community.
The Yindjibarndi Nation's relationship with the Australian state has been shaped by the same forces that shaped the experience of First Nations peoples across the country: dispossession, the removal of children, the suppression of language and ceremony, and decades of exclusion from the economic and political life of the nation whose wealth was built on their country.
Roebourne — the main Yindjibarndi community town — has a history that reflects this clearly. It was established as a colonial administrative centre in 1866, and became the hub of the pearling and pastoral industries that displaced Yindjibarndi people from their country and pressed many into unpaid labour. The impact of that history continues to shape the community today.
But the Yindjibarndi Nation has never accepted dispossession as a permanent condition. Through the latter half of the 20th century — and accelerating through the native title era — the Yindjibarndi asserted their rights with increasing force and legal sophistication. The establishment of the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation gave the Nation a formal governing structure through which to pursue those rights.
The pivotal moment came in 2017, when the Federal Court of Australia determined that the Yindjibarndi Native Title claim over a significant portion of the Pilbara had been proven. The determination, together with a subsequent Yindjibarndi claim prosecuted all the way to the High Court, recognised Yindjibarndi native title rights extending over 13,000 square kilometres of the Pilbara — including areas of direct relevance to the iron ore industry that operates on and around their country.
That determination did not resolve all disputes — negotiations with mining companies over access, royalties and benefit-sharing continue to be contested. But it established, in the clearest possible legal terms, that the Yindjibarndi Nation's connection to their country is real, continuous and legally recognised.
The 2017 Federal Court native title determination was a landmark — not just for the Yindjibarndi, but for the principle that First Nations connection to country survives colonisation and must be recognised in law.
More than 50,000 years of unbroken Yindjibarndi presence on the Pilbara — living, moving, naming and caring for country.
Roebourne established as a colonial administrative centre. Displacement, labour exploitation and suppression of culture begins.
YAC established as the formal governing body of the Yindjibarndi Nation — providing a structure for pursuing land rights, cultural programs and economic development.
The Mabo decision and subsequent Native Title Act open the legal pathway for the Yindjibarndi to formally assert their rights over their country.
Native title rights recognised over 13,000 km² of the Pilbara across two determinations — including exclusive possession over 2,700 km² confirmed in 2017 and upheld against FMG appeal in 2020.
The Yindjibarndi Nation builds economic structures — including Jina Rent a Car — to ensure that activity on their country generates real returns for their community.
The word jina comes from the Yindjibarndi language. It means foot — and in the context of this business, it carries the image of a footprint left on country. A mark that says: we were here, we are here, we will continue to be here.
Jina Rent a Car operates from Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman and Gap Ridge — all locations within or directly adjacent to Yindjibarndi country. The business is not a visitor on this country. It is an expression of the Yindjibarndi Nation's determination to participate in the economic life of the Pilbara on their own terms.
The Yindjibarndi Nation are majority owners of Cedrent Enterprises Pty Ltd, which trades as Jina Rent a Car. When corporate clients, mine site operators and travellers choose Jina, they are choosing to put their spend directly into the hands of the people whose country they are working on.
Our Ownership
The Yindjibarndi Nation is governed through two corporations: the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and the Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation (YNAC). Together, they manage and coordinate the Nation's strategic work across three focus areas — community, culture and commerce — guiding the Yindjibarndi Nation's collective journey toward self-determination and economic sovereignty.
YAC leads the Nation's engagement with government, industry and the legal system — including the landmark native title determinations and the ongoing compensation case against Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) for unpaid royalties and damage to sacred sites. YNAC focuses on country management, homelands and the Nation's cultural obligations to ngurra.
Cultural documentation and preservation is led by the Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation — the body responsible for collecting, sustaining and promoting Yindjibarndi culture, language, genealogy and history. Juluwarlu created the Wanthiwa app, which brings the Yindjibarndi creation story to life through animation narrated in English and Yindjibarndi, making the Nation's 50,000-year-old heritage accessible to community and the world.
Jina Rent a Car's ownership structure is directly aligned with the Yindjibarndi Nation's commerce focus — building wealth from culturally responsible enterprise on country, and ensuring that returns flow equitably to the community.
Visit Yindjibarndi NationThe Yindjibarndi Nation's vision, as stated on their own website, is simple: a unified and cohesive community free from violence and struggle, with the ability to access opportunity and resources to support Elders and youth, and raise happy, healthy families. Building toward that vision through commerce is where Jina fits.
The Nation is also actively supporting a homeland movement — enabling Yindjibarndi people to return to country and live there — and is developing renewable energy projects through the Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation in partnership with ACEN. These are the structures of a nation building its future on its own terms.
For organisations operating in the Pilbara — whether in mining, resources, construction or any other sector — engaging respectfully with the Yindjibarndi Nation and its governing bodies is not simply a compliance requirement. It is the foundation of a productive and sustainable relationship with the people whose country you are working on.